Opposition Leader Mike Nahan pins tax hope on US amnesty

Camera IconWA Liberal leader Mike Nahan revealed that he has not been able to rescind his US citizenship due to a tax dispute.

State Liberal leader Mike Nahan says he hopes to receive an “amnesty” from the US Government to resolve dual citizenship and taxation headaches.

The Opposition Leader took partyroom colleagues by surprise last month after revealing that he was in an unresolved dispute with America’s Internal Revenue Service over claims he could owe a big sum in unpaid tax.

Amid a debate over the eligibility of dual citizenship holders to sit in State Parliament, Dr Nahan claimed he had been unable to revoke his US citizenship because of the IRS claim he owed unpaid taxes.

Dr Nahan said yesterday that he was among tens of thousands of dual citizens who hoped they may now be eligible for an amnesty.

If successful, he said that would automatically allow him to revoke his US citizenship.

“The US Government has come out with an amnesty widely, I have been told,” Dr Nahan said. “We are pursuing that in my case and in the case of tens of thousands of other people in a similar position.”

Dr Nahan has previously suggested that the sum demanded by the IRS potentially ran to “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

The former WA treasurer, who was born in Michigan, claims he had been in the process of renouncing his US citizenship after entering Parliament but the US put a stay on that process, claiming he owed unpaid tax.

Dr Nahan said the IRS was pursuing him for taxes owed on earnings from his Australian self-managed super-annuation account.

The US is one of the few countries to tax non-resident citizens.

Many dual US-Australian citizens living in Australia are reported to be fighting a similar battle because of recent law changes in the US.